College mourns the death of emeritus trustee John J. Compton ’49

Longtime Vanderbilt philosophy professor was 85

WOOSTER, Ohio – The College of Wooster mourns the passing of John J. Compton '49,
a distinguished professor of philosophy at Vanderbilt University who served on Wooster's
board of trustees for 26 years. Compton died Jan. 18 at the age of 85.

Compton was the son of Arthur Holly Compton '13, who won the Nobel Prize in physics
in 1927, and Betty McCloskey Compton '13. He graduated from The College of Wooster
with a bachelor's degree in mathematics in 1949, earned his master's and doctorate
in philosophy from Yale, and joined Vanderbilt's philosophy department in 1952. Over
the next the next four decades he won numerous teaching awards and served twice as
department chair.

Compton joined Wooster's board of trustees in 1975 and served until 2001, when he
was elected an emeritus life member. He won Wooster's Distinguished Alumni Award in
1979.